Over the past three years, he’s learned how to better prepare for majors, with eight top-25 results in 10 starts. He avenged last year’s Open collapse with a Masters win; with another one this week, he could erase it altogether.

He’s been all-or-nothing lately, winning three of his last eight starts while missing the cut in the other five. After getting himself into Sunday contention a year ago, here’s guessing he’ll be closer to the former than the latter.

On his relationship with links golf, Lefty says, “It’s a hate-love. I used to hate it and now I love it.” He also loved winning the Scottish Open last weekend, clearly embracing a style of play that could parlay into another title contention this week.

Call this one outthinking some overthinking. I had Laird in this spot at last month’s U.S. Open. It didn’t happen for him at Merion, but fresh off a strong performance at Castle Stuart, the Scotland native may finally be ready.

The world’s No. 1 player will never fly under the radar, but the attention has been deflected a bit entering this one. He maintains his sore elbow is ready to go. If it stays that way on this firm course, we could see Hoylake revisited.

With Muirfield’s terrain broaching extra crispy proportions this week, brains should prevail over brawn. As such, expect a few crafty veterans to find their way onto the leaderboard – and there aren’t many craftier than Bjorn.

With top-10s in two of the last four majors – including a T-7 at this tournament last year – the Belgian Bomber is proving that he’s much more than just a big hitter. Knocking on the door of bigger things soon.

Much like his mate Adam Scott, the Aussie has put a premium on preparing for the major championships. That strategy has resulted in three runner-up finishes in the past three years for a 25-year-old mature beyond his years.

Still largely unknown to many fans in the U.S., the South African established himself with four European Tour wins last year. He enters this one in form, fresh off reaching a Scottish Open playoff, which he lost to Mickelson on Sunday.

Since famously failing to qualify for last year’s Masters, the Big Easy’s major results read as following: 9-1-48-13-4. Call him a double defending champion this week, as he won both last year and the last time Muirfield hosted an Open.

11. Luke Donald

May be waiting in the fescue for that first major title to come this week.